The Problem We Were Actually Solving
Our main problem was to create a seamless user experience for customers in restricted countries while minimizing the risk of our platform being shut down due to non-compliance with local regulations. Traditional payment gateways require users to provide KYC information and sometimes impose restrictions on transactions from or to countries with higher risk profiles. This wouldn't work for our platform. We needed to integrate a checkout system that was more flexible.
What We Tried First (And Why It Failed)
Our initial approach was to use a centralized wallet solution that offered no KYC and had no account creation requirements. However, we soon realized that our solution had its issues. First, centralized wallets don't always offer the best security, as the funds are held in one place. Second, our users' transaction history would be owned and controlled by this third-party wallet provider, which we didn't want. Lastly, we encountered issues with user support. Users couldn't self-serve their transactions or issue refunds, resulting in long support times.
The Architecture Decision
To solve this, we moved our focus to a decentralized checkout system using Web3 technologies. We chose to integrate a decentralized wallet solution that utilized a blockchain, offering our users more control over their assets and transaction history. We worked closely with our development team to integrate our new checkout system with a reliable Web3 payment gateway. This allowed us to host our own checkout system, entirely free from KYC restrictions.
What The Numbers Said After
After implementing our decentralized checkout system, we noticed significant improvements in user experience as well as reduced support times. Average transaction processing time was reduced by 50% compared to our previous solution. Our platform became more attractive to users from restricted countries, increasing our worldwide user base by 300%. We also witnessed a 75% decrease in user churn, thanks to better self-service features and overall user control.
What I Would Do Differently
One thing I would change if I had to do this project again is implement a decentralized identity solution that allows users to prove their ownership and control of funds without revealing their identity to the platform. This would provide an even higher level of security and user control, while still meeting regulatory requirements. We should also consider implementing our own decentralized storage solution for user data, to ensure maximum control over our users' data.
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